NOVEL NEXT Chapter 10
Matt woke up to the feeling of someone stroking his cheek gently, thinking it was Blake he allowed himself to relax and almost fall back asleep to the amazing feeling. However something felt a bit off so he groggily opened his eyes. Expecting to see Blake with her hand on his face he was instead surprised to see his room was completely empty. The moment he opened his eyes the feeling stopped much to his annoyance. Looking around in confusion he shrugged ‘huh, I guess I was just imagining things’ he thought.
Getting up he took a shower and got ready for the day. Today he would be meeting with Azul and his girlfriend so he made more of an effort than usual to look good. Looking in his clothes drawer after exiting the bathroom he could not find a couple articles of clothing that he knew he had. A pair of his socks, some underwear and one of his shirts were missing, ‘The hell? Did I miss placing them in the laundry last night?’ Now that he thought about it he didn't remember seeing them in his hamper with the rest of his clothes yesterday either. Huffing he decided not to think about it anymore, his morning was starting off really weird.
Chalking it up to his bad memory, he got dressed and walked out of his room. He wanted to get a good workout this morning since it was only 10 am and he had to meet up with Azul at 6 pm so he had plenty of time.
Matt walked through the rainy weather to make it to the gym, an umbrella held in his hands. Looking around at the soaked, dark roads, he couldn't help the small, relaxed smile that came onto his face. The sky is clouded over, making the streets dim and slightly eerie, and there were not as many people walking the streets as there usually were. He had always enjoyed rainy weather, feeling much more relaxed and at peace when hearing the sound of raindrops. One of his favorite activities in his old life was sitting on the porch behind his house when it rained, just watching the water pour from the sky.
The smile was wiped from his face when he heard a girl cry out in pain. Looking at where the sound came from he saw three humans tugging on a Faunus woman's ears while laughing. The four girls looked to be around eighteen years old, ‘classmates perhaps?’. The Faunus herself was rather short, coming in at about 5’4 while the other girls seemed to be around 5'10.
“Oh gross, look at this freaks ears!”
“I know right, maybe she barks like a dog too!”
“Come on Gabby, bark for me and maybe I'll let you go!”
Matt watched everything happening with apathetic eyes. Honestly he never cared to get involved in other people's business, he knew it was ‘wrong’ to watch as someone got harassed or hurt and do nothing about it, but he could never bring himself to care. His business was his and other people's business was theirs, nothing else to it.
It wasn't like he was a weirdo to view the world like this, hell everyone else on the street was just as bad as him for watching and doing nothing. He just knew from past experiences that getting wrapped up in a stranger's business would only make his life worse. The only two people he felt he would stick his neck out for at the moment was Blake and Ruby, anyone else and he wouldn't bother to help.
Shaking his head he continued on his way, hearing the jeering voices slowly fade out as he turned a corner. He wished the Faunus girl well but thought no farther on it.
Finally arriving in front of his destination, he looked at the neon bold letters that read “Fitfinity”. Walking through the front door he put the umbrella and his coat on a rack before walking up to the front counter. The woman working behind the counter smiled at him as he checked in, “Hey Matt, back for another day huh? I have to say I'm impressed with your progress.” she said, eyeing him subtly.
Matt smiled back, “Thanks Sam! I'm surprised to see you at the front desk today insead of the squat rack.” Samantha, or Sam as she preferred to be called, was the co-owner of the gym with her twin sister Pamala. They were both in their late thirties and have owned this gym for just over a decade. Looking at Sam the only word Matt could use to accurately describe the way she looked was ‘Amazon’. She was about 6’5 and buff as hell. Despite the extreme muscle mass she still somehow managed to look feminine by his old world's standards, with very tan skin, dark brown hair and eyes, and a soft looking face. Her hair was in a messy bob cut making her pull off the ‘tomboy’ look.
Sam smiled in exasperation “Well it was my day in the rotation, besides some blonde came in and took over the squat rack.” She shrugged with a face that said ‘what can you do’. Finally getting checked in Matt waved goodbye and walked into the gym, not noticing Samantha's intense stare on his backside. ‘Damn, If only you were eighteen, I'd rock your world boy’ She thought with an internal sigh.
Walking into the gym Matt looked around, it wasn't the biggest gym in the world but it was pretty sizable. There were two rows of treadmills facing a window, behind them were several machines ranging from lat pulldowns to bench presses. There were bathrooms and changing rooms in the corner as well as a separate room for crossfit. On the back wall was a giant mirror with a dumbbell and kettlebell rack in front of it. Looking around he saw maybe around twenty or thirty people working out, although his eyes quickly locked onto a tall mane of blond hair sitting on a bench near the squat rack.
Raising a brow he walked over, noticing that it was the girl he was thinking about. “Yang?”
Turning around to look at the new voice Yang's eyebrow raised slightly and a grin tugged at her lips, “Heya, you're the comic cashier right?” although when a thought popped into her head she looked at him quizzically, “Did I ever tell you my name though?”
Matt twitched slightly, ‘ah crap, come on Matt think of an excuse quick’ he thought nervously, “Uh… ah, yeah Ruby told me about you” Now he just had to hope Yang didn't double check that, he didn't think she would though, it's not a big deal after all.
Grinning sheepishly, she scratched the back of her head nervously, “Heh heh, yeah I should probably apologize for the way I acted in the store. I just wanted to make sure Ruby had a good friend, she's been hurt in the past and I didnt want that to happen again, so I'm sorry.”
Matt shrugged uncaringly, “It’s fine, I was never upset about it. I just get awkward around people that flirt so boldly.” It was a bit embarrassing to say but by this point he was used to the fact that some things seen as pitiful for a man in his old world were considered charming here.
Yang smirked, “That right hot stuff? I'm surprised, I'd imagine a boy as attractive as you would get admirers coming up to them every day.” She teased.
Matt felt his cheeks warm slightly but pushed to feeling down and tried to brush her off, “I'm not that attractive, it doesn't happen as much as you might think.” While he wasn't as insecure about his looks as when he first came here, he still had trouble accepting the fact that his figure was considered more attractive than the big macho man ideal he had in his head.
Yang gave him a disbelieving look, “Are you kidding me? Just during our conversation alone I've seen every gal in here sneak a peek at your ass. You’ve got the looks, now you just have to learn to flaunt it.” She said with a grin.
Matt suddenly felt like he was getting stared at after having it pointed out but resisted the urge to turn around. He didn't give a shit if he was being checked out, he was flattered by it in fact. Grinning, he stuck out his chest, “Are you saying I don't already know how to flaunt it?”
Yang shook her head, “Nah, you don't come across as the ‘sexy city boy who can rock your world’, more like the ‘sheltered country boy who you want to protect’.”
Matt gave her a confused look, “Why would they want to protect me?” He definitely wasn't sheltered after all.
Crossing her arms under her breasts she started listing things off, “Well one your small and your face gives you a really innocent look, making most women feel the need to shelter you from the “big bad world”. You also seem to lack self preservation when talking to women, I mean I can imagine you treating a criminal off the street with the same amount of respect as you would with a medical professional giving you a diagnosis, not to mention-”
Interrupting Yang, Matt gave her a slightly annoyed look, “Ok ok, I get it. How do you figure that anyways? We haven't known each other for that long after all”, He asked.
“I've always been really perceptive,” She said with a wink. “Hey, I'm about to head to the bench press, do you want to be my gym buddy today and spot me?”
Shrugging Matt smiled, “Sure, don’t expect too much help with the weight you'll be lifting though. I'm not exactly up to hunter standard.”
Waving him off she started walking over to the bench press, ignoring some of the slightly jealous stares she got, “That's fine, you’d be surprised how much just a little bit of force can help someone with a rep.” She said as she started grabbing forty five pound weights and piling them onto the bench press bar.
Matt was only expecting her to put on about 2 or 3 on each side so he was surprised when she didn't stop, and he watched incredulously as she stacked more and more onto the bar until it was at seven hundred and fifty points of weight. ‘Are all hunters this freakishly strong even without aura?’ “Can you actually bench press that without activating your aura?” He wouldn't be surprised if she could do it with aura, but that would defeat the whole purpose of exercising. When working out you didn't want to activate your aura because it would prevent your muscles from tearing, meaning they would never get stronger.
Grinning, she got into position on the bench and got ready, while Matt stood behind her with his hands hovering under the bar, “Of course, I'm built different after all.” And with that she easily took the bar off the rack and started to do her set, all under the impressed eyes of Matt. Preening under the eyes Yang thought to herself ‘You know, I'm always able to push my limits more when a hot guy watches. I usually only bench press seven twenty’
Matt spotted her for three of her sets, giving her encouraging words when she looked to be struggling, until they switched and it was Matt's turn to use the bench press. Walking over to the side of the bar Matt took off the clip and picked up one of the wights, huffing slightly as he put it back on the holder. His strength was still pretty average so he decided to only put on two twenty five pound weights on the bar, meaning he was benching about one hundred pounds as the bar itself weighed fifty.
Getting into position he got ready to do his sets as Yang stood behind the bench. Taking a breath he grabbed the bar and did five reps before feeling his muscles protesting, going through the motion to rack it he was surprised when Yang stopped him and started encouraging him, “Come on Matt, you can do more than that. Give me one more rep!”
Gritting his teeth he didn’t complain and struggled to do another rep, finishing it with a grunt. Right as he was about to rack it again Yang shouted, “One more! Come on, you got it!” Hyping himself up in his head he lowered the bar to do one more rep and pushed with all his might to finish the rep, he felt his arms burning and right as he felt like they would give out Yang grabbed the bar and racked it. “That was a good set Matt, I'm surprised you could lift that much with your build.”
Huffing in exhaustion he gave her the stink eye and asked, “What's that supposed to mean?”
Fumbling with her words slightly she tried to explain what she said, “Well you know… you look skinny… uh not that that's a bad thing or anything, just that-” Before she could make a fool out of herself she saw the little smirk Matt was trying to hide, “Oh. Ha! Quit messing with me you vag.” She said with a grin.
Matt failed to hide his own smile and gave her a shrug and his most innocent look, “No idea what you're talking about Yang, now are you going to help me with my next set or just stand there stuttering over your words?” Grinning Yang got into position to spot him again.
Walking out of the locker room in fresh clothes Matt felt refreshed and ready for the day. He had decided to take a short shower here since he didn't feel like going all the way back to his apartment. The only problem was now he had a backpack of dirty clothes with him and he didn't really want to carry them around for the rest of the day. They were pretty smelly since he worked even harder than he usually did with Yang's encouraging words the entire time.
Walking up to the front desk he gave Sam his best pleading look, “Hey Samantha, do you think I could leave this bag of workout clothes here for the moment? I don't want to make an extra stop at my apartment this morning so I can come back later today and pick them up.” He knew there were lockers here but they cost money to rent and he didn't feel like coughing up the lien for that, so he decided to see if he could use the advantages this reverse world gave him over women to get it for free.
Looking a bit flustered she was quick to agree, “Sure sure, no problem. Here just hand the bag over and I'll take care of it until you come pick it up.”
Matt noticed there was something a bit intense in her eyes when she looked at the bag but decided it wasn't a big deal and gave it to her. He was a bit confused when she didn't put it in a locker and instead put the bag under her desk but decided not to question it. “Thanks Sam! I’ll see you later!” He said with a grin as he walked out the front door.
Once outside he noticed a tall blond leaning on a motorcycle waiting for him. Noticing him she waved him to come over. Walking up to the bike he gave her a grin, “Were you waiting for me? If you were, sorry I took so long, I wanted to take a short shower before I left.”
Nodding with a toothy smile she said, “Yeah, I remembered you telling me you didn't have a ride of your own so I figured I could drop you off where you needed to go. What kind of woman would I be if I let a cute boy walk through the dangerous city?”
Giving her a thankful smile he agreed and they quickly hopped on the bike. Not quite sure what to grab in-order to hold on he put his hands on her shoulders, but she seemed dissatisfied with that and grabbed his hands, wrapping them around her waist instead, allowing him to feel her incredibly toned stomach and abs. “You're gonna have to hold on tight and this will allow you to get a better grip.” Even though she said this, he could tell she had other reasons for having him hold her waist. The entire time she was talking he could hear the satisfied smile in her voice and he could tell she enjoyed having him pressed into her. Not that he was complaining, he enjoyed pushing up against the blond bombshell. “You ready to get going Matt? We're gonna be going a bit fast.”
Giving her the green light he gave her the address he wanted to be dropped off at and they took off at incredible speed down the street. The address he gave her was of a park close to Azul's place he could hang out at until their meeting, he'd never been there himself but he saw reviews saying it was one of the nicest places in Vale. A sharp turn around a corner broke him out of his thoughts with a yelp, causing him to grip Yang harder to stay on the bike. Unfortunately that seemed to encourage her to go faster so he would press against her more, hitting speeds that he was sure were completely illegal. Sighing in his mind he decided he might as well enjoy the ride, and started looking around at the scenery flying by his view.